sportscastingfandomcom-20200215-history
FOX Sports
FOX Sports is a division of the FOX Broadcasting Company. It was founded in 1994 when the network had acquisition rights to televise the National Football League. In subsuquent years, it also has televised the National Hockey League (1994-1999), Major League Baseball (1996-present), NASCAR (2001-present), the Bowl Championship Series (2007-2010), and the World Cup (2018-future). Exclusive Coverage FOX became the exclusive home for the Daytona 500 after alternating the event with NBC during their first contract with NASCAR. In partnership with co-owned motorsports cable network Speed, FOX has also televised the start of the Rolex 24 at Daytona and select Formula One races under Speed production since 2007, and also broadcasts 2 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races per season also transferred from Speed, produced under the NASCAR on FOX brand. FOX has been exclusively broadcasting the World Series since 2000. It was announced on July 11, 2006, that fox will still carry the World Series through 2013. FOX has also brodcast the final of UEFA Champions League since 2010. In August 2011, it was announced FOX would televise the Ultimate Fighting Championship under a 7 year contract with UFC. It was aired across various FOX properties including FOX itself, FX, and Fuel TV. It airs four live events, with the first one taking place in November 2011 Cable channels In addition to the broadcast division, FOX also owns numerous sports cable channels under the FOX Sports Net banner. These cable channels include: *Fox Soccer which broadcasts the UEFA Champions League and Premier League among other competitions. *Fox Soccer Plus which airs additional soccer and rugby programming from around the world. *SPEED which provides additional NASCAR and F-1 coverage, *Big Ten Network which broadcasts sports and content from Big Ten Conference universities exclusively. *Fuel TV which airs action sports such as skateboarding, surfing, snowboarding, BMX and FMX. *Fox College Sports which airs additional college sports content from across the country on 3 cable channels (Fox College Sports Atlantic, Fox College Sports Central, and Fox College Sports Pacific), most produced by Fox Sports Net affiliates. *Fox Deportes which airs Spanish-language coverage of UEFA Champions League, English Premier League, and Serie A as well as Beach Soccer and the F.A. Cup. It also presents the Spanish-language Major League Baseball Game of the Week, the All Star Game, and the World Series, as well as division and league playoffs. Regional Coverage FOX Sports Net operates as a regional sports network with broadcasting agreements that follow league market distribution rules. For instance, cable and satellite subscribers in Dallas, Texas receive Texas Rangers games on FOX Sports Southwest, while viewers in Houston, Texas see Houston Astros games on FOX Sports Houston. The regionalized coverage frequently restricts broadcasts of live sporting events outside a team's home market. Logos, Scoring Bugs and Graphics, and Theme Music During FOX Sports' 18-year run, the on-air graphics and score bugs have been upgraded every few years. The iconic FoxBox graphic, which displays real time information such as the current score, was a major innovation in the history of sportscasting technology in the United States. The FoxBox debuted in 1994 with FOX's coverage of the NFL. Eventually it was expanded to other sports except for golf, and other networks implemented score bugs. The FoxBox was discontinued in 2001 in favor of a graphic header at the top of the screen, although FOX broadcasters continued to call the new graphic header the FoxBox. The top-header returned to a box on the left-hand corner of the screen in 2009 when the baseball broadcasts started using the same graphics implemented by FSN in 2008. In July 2010, the FoxBox was moved to the far left side of the screen, appearing outside of the typical 4:3 safe area; however, the picture is letterboxed for 4:3 television sets. In late-2010, the theme music used for FOX's NFL broadcasts became the theme music for all their properties, including baseball and NASCAR. Most viewers thought it was a bad idea for it to be on all Fox Sports broadcasts.